Dropping sermons from subpoenas fails to quiet critics

Mayor Annise Parker on Friday followed through on her pledge to narrow the scope of subpoenas sent to local pastors who led opposition to the city's equal rights ordinance earlier this year, but conservatives, who have rallied nationwide against what they insist is an infringement of religious freedom, said it was not enough.

Though the subpoenas' new wording removes any mention of "sermons" - a reference that elicited responses from numerous politicians, including Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who accused Parker of trying to "silence the church" - the mayor acknowledged the new subpoenas do not explicitly preclude sermons from being produced.

"We don't need to intrude on matters of faith to have equal rights in Houston, and it was never the intention of the city of Houston to intrude on any matters of faith or to get between a pastor and their parishioners," Parker said. "We don't want their sermons; we want the instructions on the petition process. That's always what we wanted, and, again, they knew that's what we wanted because that's the subject of the lawsuit."

Opponents took advantage of the broad original language, Parker said, to deliberately misinterpret the city's intent and spur what City Attorney David Feldman called a "media circus."

The subpoenas are part of the discovery process in a lawsuit filed by opponents of the nondiscrimination measure City Council passed in May. Known as HERO, for Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, the law bans discrimination among businesses that serve the public, private employers, in housing and in city employment and city contracting. Religious institutions are exempt. The city has suspended enforcement of the ordinance until the lawsuit, which is set for trial in January, is resolved.

Opponents had mounted a petition drive to force a voter referendum to repeal the ordinance, but city officials ruled thousands of signatures ineligible and did not place the item on the ballot, triggering the suit.

None of the five pastors targeted by the subpoenas is a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Backstep on sermons

The subpoenas now seek "all speeches or presentations related to HERO or the Petition" that the pastors delivered, revised, approved or have on hand. Previously, the wording also had mentioned "sermons" as well as "homosexuality, or gender identity," protected classes that were covered in the city ordinance but are not listed in state or federal laws.

Conservative leader Jared Woodfill, one of four plaintiffs in the suit, said the revision does not go far enough. The city needs to withdraw any subpoena related to pastors or religious institutions, he said, arguing that Houston can build its case from the documents already subpoenaed from the plaintiffs, such as information about the people who circulated the petitions.

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"The mayor needs to get the city out of the business of subpoenaing churches. There's absolutely no reason for this city to be trampling on the First Amendment rights of these pastors," Woodfill said. "It starts with these five, and then who's next? There were pastors all across the state talking about the HERO ordinance."

Woodfill's thoughts were echoed by national conservative groups.

'Solves nothing'

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins called the revision a "head fake" that does not remove the city's infringement of religious liberties, and Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Erik Stanley said the revision "solves nothing."

The ACLU of Texas said it supports the nondiscrimination ordinance but cheered the mayor's decision to narrow the subpoenas, saying, "There was no need to include sermons in the subpoena in the first place."

Though a speech from the pulpit about the HERO ordinance - something still covered by the new subpoenas - could be interpreted as a sermon, Feldman said the key is the content of the message. The city is not interested in religious speech, he said, but in any references to the petition process.

"If during the course of the sermon - and I doubt this very much - a pastor took 15 or 20 minutes to go into detail about how the petition process goes, then that's part of the discovery," Parker said. "But that's not about preaching a sermon on anybody's religious beliefs, it's not conveying a religious message; that's part of the petition process, and all we're interested in is the petition process."